The day’s China news in pictures: Mongolian-Chinese catch fish by placing a net under a frozen lake, diners pose for pictures with steamed buns at a restaurant where Chinese President Xi Jinping ate in Beijing, protesters burn a Japanese military flag near the Japanese Consulate General in Hong Kong and more. Read More »

China may have felt it had bigger fish to fry last week when it gave a low-key response to a maritime deal between Japan and Taiwan on access to waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Associated Press

Perhaps China had its attention focused on the volatile Korean peninsula, which was looking unusually unstable and in need of urgent attention. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was on his way to Beijing to huddle with the Chinese to ensure that crisis didn’t get out of hand. And perhaps Beijing felt there was no need to muddy the waters at that point.

Beijing has maintained that low-key stance but it hasn’t been ready to let the fishing issue sink completely from sight. Read More »

China Fishery Group is offering $556 million for Copeinca to capitalize on the Oslo-listed company’s access to Peru’s rich fishing resources; the president of Nissan’s Chinese joint venture operations said that its sales in China for January and February combined may fall by 20% compared with the same period a year ago on continues tensions and a holiday slowdown; China is encouraging doctors to come out of retirement and work in rural areas as part of an effort to tackle a health-care disparity between wealthy cities and the much poorer countryside. Read More »

A snowy winter scene isn’t exactly standard summer fare, but that’s the sight that greeted beach-goers in Hong Kong over the weekend.

Millions of tiny white plastic pellets have been washing up on the city’s shores for the past two weeks, since the city was struck by the worst typhoon in over a decade last month. The storm knocked six containers containing 150 tons of plastic pellets off a ship just south of Hong Kong, sending a tide of white confetti pouring into the waters, which swiftly began washing up on Hong Kong’s shores. Read More »

Officials in the southern city of Liuzhou have cancelled a 1000-yuan ($157) reward for piranhas caught in a local river after a campaign to hunt down the Amazonian predators led the killing of too many “innocent” fish, the state-run China Daily reports. Read More »

Shark’s fin soup, a traditional Chinese delicacy—but one reviled in much of the West—won’t be on the menu at official Chinese banquets in the coming years, according to state media. This week, Xinhua reported that within one to three years, the country’s State Council plans to release guidelines banning shark’s fin from being served at official receptions. Read More »

Just as the tides seem to be turning against the consumption of shark fin soup – even in Asia, where the delicacy has long been a staple on banquet menus – some marine life experts are arguing that banning the sale of shark fins is pointless.

Speaking at a seminar organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, Dr. Giam Choo Hoo, a member of a United Nations body on endangered species, said that media hype is responsible for “misconceptions” about the shark-fishing industry. Arguing against widely-circulated images showing bloodied sharks struggling as their fins are hacked off – popularized by the likes of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay – Dr. Giam said a vast majority of sharks are not killed to feed the tastes of increasingly-affluent Chinese consumers who consider the dish a status symbol. Read More »

Your daily roundup of the best of The Wall Street Journal’s coverage:Japan Pact Gives Yuan More Powerful Role: A wide-ranging currency agreement between China and Japan is expected to give the Chinese yuan a more powerful role in international trade, but Beijing still must make substantial changes in how it manages its economy before the yuan becomes a currency powerhouse on the scale of the dollar or euro. North Korea in Focus: Concerns over North Korea following the death of its leader, Kim Jong Il, took center stage during a two-day visit by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to China, while the two sides steered clear of sensitive topics such as territorial disputes. Read More »

Expert Insight

New rules on labor negotiations in southern China offer a potential solution to the country's growing problem with labor unrest while at the same time illustrating the difficulty the Communist Party faces in effectively addressing workers’ grievances.

For much of the last half-century, changing China through economic reform seemed to make far better sense than transforming the country through political revolution. Xi Jinping is trying to flip that on its head.

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